Brussels police detain five in raids linked to Paris attacks

On Monday, an additional house in Laeken was searched, according to the Belgian federal prosecutor’s statement, two people were arrested.

Hamza Attou – who with another man, Mohammed Amri, is suspected of driving Abdeslam to Brussels – was quoted as saying he had been threatened.

All three are from the gritty Brussels suburb of Molenbeek. The raid was reportedly carried out in connection with the terrorist attacks in Paris last month.

They claimed the request was unexpected and they helped him innocently. Authorities said they found no weapons or explosives at either residence, and didn’t identify those detained.

In France, people traveling on high-speed trains from France to Belgium and the Netherlands now must pass through new metal detectors.

Brahim Abdeslam (31) detonated his suicide vest outside the Comptoir Voltaire cafe on Boulevard Voltaire during the assaults.

Le Parisien newspaper, citing police sources, said the 269 sq ft contained a bed made from a wooden palette and a foam mattress in dense foliage that made it invisible from the road.

Detectives now believe he has absconded back to Syria to rejoin Islamic State, with other reports say he is in Morocco.

According to the driver, the officer said that their drug use “was not good, but it was not the priority today”, presumably in reference to the terror attacks.

They were not asked for their papers, but they were at the second and third police checkpoints.

Belgian police are still actively looking for 26-year-old, Brussels-born Abdeslam, suspected of having played a key role in the Paris attacks and understood to have returned to the Belgian capital the day after the bloodshed.